Introduction

Ifemidayo LayGiri

You must agree this is the age of smart phones and gadgets, and they really are not going away anytime soon. You will also agree that the internet is powered by data and content and most of said data is being consumed, searched, recycled and used by random people from very random corners of the world. And of course — the obvious — you agree that there are billions of people in the world and many billions of people with smartphones, computers and access to the internet.

Glad we all agree! Let's move on then...

So why bother with all these agreeable facts? Well, I thought it would be nice to point out the fundamental reason why anyone would own a website — let alone try to increase the number of people who use said website.

There are 3 things you need for this blog post to be of any use to you:

A website. (Because your potato doesn’t need web traffic)

A desire to make that website more popular.

Patience.

Now that we have that all settled, let’s talk about 3 fundamental things that will usually significantly improve a website’s visitors/traffic.

Email Subscription

*Light bulb moment*

Yes! Yes!! Yes!!! I love your blog and I loved that you were able to teach me how to prevent my dog from pooing on my new carpet — but, no matter how much I love my dog and how much I learn from your website, if you do not remind me to comeback you probably will never see me again.

Here is how it works — we already established that the world is a big place, but so is the internet. The information you are giving out is readily available elsewhere. Agreed? Great! So what reason could I possibly have to not simply Google my dog problems next time and find some other vendor. It’s simple, If you ask me to subscribe and I really value the knowledge/content that you provide, I will.

Then it gets better when I see new articles about the same topic delivered on a regular basis — of course articles about getting through the day with a stubborn dog — in my case. And before you know it — I am already accustomed to visiting your website regularly, I am accustomed to your style of writing and I don’t want to read advice from anyone else because you are now like Rihanna to me — I absolutely love your work.

This entire heading assumes you have a blog or a content sharing platform of some kind on said website, if you don't... Get one!

Audience Building

Like any successful business out here in this cold world — you need an audience to buy what you are selling. If there is no audience for your product or service, you are entirely on your own.

That said, it is very wise to invest a reasonable amount of time and/or money growing a community of loyal followers (nothing weird like a cult…). You want people interested in your industry and more specifically your own offering to like your Facebook page and follow your twitter and add you to their circles on Google plus.

A profound spirit will get you going but a sizable budget will get you there most likely, little things like freebies, competitions and what not also help you grow an audience pretty quickly.

Get an audience for your business or blog or whatever it is and things will begin to look very nice in your analytics in good time.

If you are thinking about purchasing a fake audience you might want to read this blog post about why a single loyal fan pays more than a hundred fake ones.

Search Engine Optimization

Yes, you guessed it you beautiful genius of a human! I am ALL about the search engines (mostly Google) and what they can do for you. Personally I use the “OK Google” search feature on my phone and Chromebook at least 25 times everyday. I always have a question, I am always looking to figure something out and I sure as hell would not pay a third party to do it until I confirm it is something I will absolutely not be able to do myself.

Which probably explains why I build my own websites and design with my own Photoshop and do my own social media marketing and write my own code and write my own articles and... Ok you get it!

The point here is, we are always looking to learn something or gather some kind of information and when we go to Google like most people do? The guy who has that information and appears first on the search results will get a visit 95% of the time. Everyone else on the first page will share the remaining 5% and I honestly believe no one cares about the second page of search results. Let alone the 3rd and 4th and 5th and… Point made!

I am not saying everyone can be like me and do their own digital marketing in house, what I am saying however is that every business owner needs to invest in some form of help wherever they may fall short. Or at least be willing to. I like to do everything myself but I am not going to try and sew my own Aso-Ebi because I am clearly not going to make a great tailor.

In my experience with Nigerian SEO agencies and experts, there aren’t many great ones — but the great ones do exist.

Attractive Images

Aesthetics help me grow my traffic too. Believe it or not.

More & More & More

By no means am I implying that these are all the thing you need to do to continue to grow/increase your website traffic, by no means have I implied that you “MUST” have a blog to grow your traffic. All of the content here is just advice. Advice that you can ignore and remove from your browser history.

No one will even know you were ever here... except Google, Google knows everything...

I hope the 3 tips I have added above help you improve your website traffic. Feel free to ask any questions you might have in the comments section below.